detonate
Other forms: detonated; detonating; detonates
Boom! To detonate is to explode or cause something to explode. If a bad guy lights the fuse of a stick of dynamite, run before it detonates!
In war, there is a lot of detonating, which is when something violently explodes, like bombs or grenades. When someone steps on a landmine, it detonates. The detonating of nuclear bombs devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. Also, to detonate is to set off a bomb. Pushing a button, flicking a switch, or lighting a fuse could detonate a bomb. Either way, to detonate is to blow up.
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cause to burst with a violent release of energy
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burst and release energy as through a violent chemical or physical reaction;"the bomb detonated at noon"
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Vocabulary lists containing detonate
Set during World War II, this novel traces the friendship and rivalry between two boys at boarding school.
Marie-Laure is a blind French girl who flees the Nazi occupation of Paris. Werner Pfennig is a young orphan living in a German mining town. In this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, their lives intertwine in unexpected ways as they try to survive the havoc of war.